Gavin Kelly’s blog
Gavin writes on politics, economics and public policy in a personal capacity. He is also Chief Executive of the Resolution Trust and Chair of the Living Wage Commission. Until recently he ran the Resolution Foundation after a long stint as a senior advisor in Downing Street.
Has the new ‘national living wage’ damaged the Living Wage campaign? No — it’s thriving.
On 1 April, 1.8 million of Britain’s low-wage workers are getting a pay rise as the legal wage floor jumps from £6.70 to £7.20 for those…aged 25 and over. That’s welcome news for Britain’s hard-pressed low paid. ¶ But the decision to re-brand the newly enhanced minimum wage the national living wage has created widespread confusion, not least for those who pay the actual, higher living wage (£9.40 in London and £8.25 elsewhere). Whatever the label, a minimum wage and living wage are very different creatures. ¶ Minimum wages are traditionally based on an assessment of what employers can afford (though George Osborne’s new…
Gavin KellyMar 30
The Budget numbers are going to all change again — time to report it differently
The Budget aftermath is the usual time to unearth hidden nasty measures and expose the Chancellor of the day’s sleight of hand. But it…should also be a moment to step back and consider whether the public are being well served in what they are being told about the fiscal future of the country over the next few years. It’s fair to say that things aren’t working as well as they might. ¶ The current set-up is defined by jumpy fiscal forecasts produced by the independent OBR on the one hand and an inflexible fiscal rule selected by the Chancellor which states that a surplus must be achieved in 2019–2020 and thereafter (subject to…Gavin KellyMar 17
Welcome back, Help to Save — what took you so long? (And what should we learn from this saga?)
Today’s news bulletins gave us the pre-Budget story that the government plans to create a matched saving scheme to help boost low and…modest income households — ‘Help to Save’. Various policy people have been quick to point out that this sounds remarkably like a policy created by the last Labour government (the ‘Saving Gateway’) which had the same objective and a similar system of matched-payments to reward savers. It was announced in 2001 and summarily abolished in June 2010 in the Coalition’s emergency budget. ¶ All this rings bells for me as I developed the original version of the policy around the millennium at the ippr…Gavin KellyMar 14
The state of Labour’s fiscal debate
Across different Labour circles there is a rumbling debate about the type of fiscal policy that should be adopted in response to George…Osborne’s fiscal rules. It’s an important issue that tells us much about the troubled state of the party. ¶ On one side are economists who argue that targeting an overall fiscal surplus, as the government is committed to doing, is simply bad economics. They highlight that borrowing for productive investment — which the rule prevents — can often be sensible; never more so than in today’s investment-deprived Britain when the Treasury can raise funds at a rock-bottom 1.6%.Gavin KellyFeb 22